Act Now, And You Will Receive This Free Gift....

OK everyone, I have something REALLY exciting for you. I am going to be out of town visiting my brother this weekend, so I can't be at the SweetWater Brew Your Cask Off event. I know, poor planning on my part. Long story short, I booked this family trip before I knew the date of the BYCO. It's hard to tell your family that yet another beer event is more important than seeing them, especially when you didn't see them over Christmas. And I did got to San Francisco, Charlotte, Las Vegas and Europe since then--which were all very beer-y trips for the most part--and attended the Atlanta Cask Ale tasting. So here is how this affects you:

1. Go taste the cask Jason & I made. It won't be too hard to find. It's called Fred Juice. I think it is going to be great. A big IPA with a few fruits in it to balance out the hops and citrus peels we added.
2. Go to  http://brewyourcaskoff.com/contest.php to register to win my seat on the judging panel. That's right, I can't be there to judge this year, and we decided to open it up to one of my blog readers. So what are you waiting for? Stop reading and click that damn link already. If you win, you not only get to be a judge, you get a t-shirt and two free passes to the event. I know that many of you are excited for this opportunity, and only one of you can win, but seriously, this is my second really good idea this year that benefits beer lovers like you. The first one was to get one of our Chancellors an opportunity to make a cask at Red Hare. Stay tuned for details as to when we are going to tap those. We have not gone to the brewery to make them yet, but we should be doing that pretty soon.

Also, why don't you take a stroll over to the Deckard's web site at http://deckardstavern.com/ and check out the cool beer dinner they are doing. This is a charitable event, so if you have been looking for a way to feel good about your drinking habit, there you go. But seriously, it is a really good cause, and chef Deckard always does a knock-out job on the beer and food pairings.

Next on my agenda is to run down a few beer events for you, then I gotta run. Here goes:

1. Tomorrow there is a cask of Brooklyn Irish Stout at Perimeter. We will be getting into it somewhere around 6:00 pm, maybe earlier if there is a good crowd. They are also selling some Brooklyn Black Ops from a bottle, but pouring it by the glass. Why? Because they only have 12 bottles, and that stuff is way expensive. Get there early if you want to get a glass of that. I should be there around 5:00 pm if everything goes my way tomorrow. See you there.
2. Next Tuesday the 13th there is a cask of Heavy Seas Pale Ale that has been dry-hopped at the new store on Holcomb Bridge Rd. The one east of GA 400, not going towards Woodstock. That store has been there for like 13 years or something. I will be there too, and we are going to probably get into that at 6:00 pm also.
3. On Thursday the 15th at The Fred Bar we have the release of Gulpener Chateau Nebourg from The Netherlands. This is a 185 year-old brewery that makes a ton of different beers, and this is the first one we have seen in this market. The folks that rep this brand (and some of them are real, live Dutch people!) will be on hand, so stop by The Fred and check out this "new" beer. Be the first kid on your block with this Brewniversity credit, if you are into that kind of thing.
4. On Friday the 16th we have another one of those dry-hopped Heavy Seas Pale Ale firkins at our Johns Creek store on Peachtree Parkway. As soon as the Heavy Seas guy gets back to me, I can tell you more about what these things were hopped with. More info on that next week for sure.

That is all I have for now. Take it easy.